Why does my comcast digital cable box sometimes lag?

Question

Why does my comcast digital cable box sometimes lag?

Answer 1

do you mean other tv's you may be watching on the same channel?  It's because of the processing involved using the box.  Regular cable, no box, is always faster.

Answer 2

do you mean picture and sound lag, or actual inputs...such as you hit the channel up button several times and nothing happens and all of a sudden it jumps five or six channels?

Answer 3

The main cause of Digital lag when watching Digital cable occurs when the actual cable system is coming up to it's Maximum service load at a given time.   For Example, You would have a faster Digital signal at 4am in the morning then during the opening kick-off of the Superbowl.  

The reason for this, is there is a system called a DNCS (Digital Network Control System). The DNCS is what controls all digital Service on that network.  Now if it has a max capacity of 5,000, and you have 4,000 up and locked on at once it will pull it's utilization up.  Your cable provider's tech department will be able to check and see the utilization of this system. Ideally it should be within these spec's >0% and <80%.  If it exceeds 80% you will have a very lagged picture, even out-of-sync audio as well.

As for the terminal it'self not being able to Process the signal due to it's processer is very rare unless your box is very old.  The reason why is under a full load there is still 50% in reserve on your digital terminal. So unlike most computers very rarely will your terminal put it'self on full load.

I hope it helps.

Matt